At last night’s Board meeting there was an interesting discussion about budget priorities. This has came back front-and-center because the failure of the State ballot propositions means the District’s funding is almost certainly going to be cut, probably significantly. That in turn means we will need, as a community, to think through, carefully, how we prioritize our expenditures.
Where should staff development expenditures fall on the priority list? For the District office staff, the principals, and a number of my colleagues the answer is “pretty near the top”. They view staff development expenditures as an important means of moving the District forward, by improving the skills of our teachers. I agree with that…as far as it goes.
The problem comes, as it always does in budgeting, when you ask what has to get cut to accommodate those expenditures. Right now the things that are at risk include PE associates, elementary music and library associates (those of you who have studied the District’s recent budget documents will know that some staff development reductions are being recommended — but there are other caches of such funding that are not on the list, and could be).
I think that’s the wrong prioritization. Yes, staff development adds value (although it’s interesting to note that hardly any teachers apparently think so, based on their feedback over the years). But it’s the kind of value add that pays dividends over time, unlike those associate positions, which add value every day.
It’s also the kind of value add where we can live off our accumulated “wealth” for a while, if we have to. Teachers are not suddenly going to lose the skills they’ve gained just because we stop training them. We can afford to let the grass grow a bit, and mow it back when times improve in a year or two. That’s in contrast to the associate positions, where the value loss will be immediate.
I encourage all of you, whatever your position on this issue, to share your perspective with the Board. You can find the trustees emails at http://www.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/board.htm (please note that the group address — board@sancarlos.k12.ca.us — shown on that page sometimes gets blocked by spam filtering; cutting and pasting the individual addresses is the better bet).